Jan 9, 2014—Emma’s 1st Day of School

Hola!

Today I had my first day of class! This first month is an intensive Spanish language class, and then I’ll go on to take a normal semester of language and culture classes. Class went really well! The professors were extremely fun, they had a lot of energy and they were really easy to understand. After class Jana and I went back home for lunch, and then we went and walked around a bit. We did a little shopping! 🙂

The days here in Granada go a lot differently than days do in the US. Things are open from 10-2 (this is when I have my class), and then they close for 3 hours, for siesta. This is when everyone goes home and makes a nice meal for lunch and rests for a little bit. Things open back up from 5-8pm. Dinner is at 9-9:30. Another thing that is different is the water situation. It is clean and everything, that is fine, but showers are luke warm or cold. Electricity and water are very expensive here so showers are cold and have to be really short. That is one thing that I really am not going to enjoy here.

My host family is amazing. I never really thought about what they would be like when I tried to picture them, but I don’t think I could have imagined better people. Elba, my host mom, is very nice and caring. She is very patient with our Spanish, and she always makes sure we are well fed. She is a great cook, and she keeps this apartment spotless. Juan, my host dad, is very genuine and caring as well. He is always concerned about our safety and always wants to make sure we are having fun, he even gave us some shopping lessons at lunch today! It’s hilarious when we as a group are struggling with a difficult word, he whips out his smart phone and uses the voice translator and we figure it out from there. So far everything has been amazing with the home experience. Jana and I are definitely well taken care of.

Jana and I are starting to look into planning a couple of trips. There is a company that puts together weekend getaways, and I think we are going to do one to Morocco, and one “beach escape” in Lagos, Portugal. They aren’t very expensive at all so we are just pumped because they sound amazing. More on that to come.

Today Jana and I received the cell phones that we are going to use here! There are very old school but they serve the purpose. It’s a good thing Juan is a computer engineer, he helps us with our technology problems.

Last night Jana, two other girls, and I had a drink so we could try the tapas. For those of you who don’t know, tapas are appetizers (they can be whatever the bar/restaurant wants to serve at time, always something different) that here in Granada are complementary with a drink. Last night we got a potato/tuna salad spread with bread, it was pretty tasty!

This is building K of the language center, this is where I have class right now. It is a really pretty building!

First day of class!

This is in the inside of building A, the white building I posted pictures of in my last post.